


After the End

by Rumoris



Category: South Park
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Eventual Romance, Ghosts & Memories, Kyle is alive because of reasons., M/M, Silent Apocalypse, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-05-21 18:15:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14920427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rumoris/pseuds/Rumoris
Summary: Everyone thought the apocalypse will be painful. Humans will destroy each other, flesh eating zombies will flood their towns and unknown diseases will appear to bring them at the verge of extinction. However, when it happened it went away as fast as it came, humans wordlessly disappearing from the face of Earth.Kenny McCormick wakes up in this silent world and starts his lonely adventure to find other survivors.





	1. Alone

_Time._

 

            In a silent world time is unmoving.

            Without people time does not exists and slowly dies off as the last clock stops.

            It was created by humans and disappeared with them.

 

            That was the first thing Kenneth, or better, Kenny McCormick first noticed when he was left alone, probably for the first time in his life. Truth to be told, he had no recollections of the first few years of his life. He counted his life from the moment he could remember the past and the beginning of this was the day when he woke up on a musty mattress. He was greeted by an old man called Stuart. The man seemed to know him, but at the time Kenny didn’t question anything. He willingly accepted the kindness and lived in the man’s house for years, helping around the house and keeping him company. In return, Stuart taught him about the world around them when he was not in search for alcohol.

            With time, Kenny noticed that Stuart loved talking about his family the most and in his sober hours he wouldn’t miss a chance to talk about them in great details. About how much he loved his wife and their three children, Kevin, Kenny and Karen. Kevin was the oldest, based on his anecdotes. The oldest boy who was kind of a loose cannon, always wearing his emotions on his sleeves, never fearing to speak what up against them or show his strength. Karen was his sweet little angel. Quiet, shy but he couldn’t keep gushing about how clever she was and how many books she’d read with her friends.

            _Once she even won a writing contest at her school!_ Stuart exclaimed proudly and the next day he pushed the pages in Kenny’s hands. He read it through the next day, nodding along with Stuart. The girl was indeed talented and had a way with words Kenny hadn’t seen before. The story of a dark guardian angel who helped a girl thorough her hardships and then disappeared when the girl finally earned her happiness and didn’t need him anymore touched him for some reason. When he wanted to give those pages back Stuart told him to keep it as the story reminded him of his past mistakes.

 _I weren’t a good father to them_ , he explained one day when they were walking around town, scavenging for food and searching for survivors. It’s been years since the End but the man refused to believe that he was the only survivor from the town.  Kenny was wearing the orange jacket of his son and it probably made Stuart think about his younger son.

            Next to the campfire he told him about his son whom he shared the name Kenny. Just like Karen, he bought happiness and light to everyone’s life.

            _He once got so fed up with us, that boy went and got a job to do what we as parents were unable to provide_. Stuart often talked about how he felt like he failed as a parent and as a husband, but for some reason Kenny found it hard to believe. Even tried to reassure him about the opposite. He knew more about the sober Stuart than the one before the End came to South Park and this made the stories sound like baseless fibs.

 

            This whole End business was hard to believe actually. One day, people just slowly stopped existing under the span of few hours. Stuart himself couldn’t recall the incident, but he still clearly remembered that he went to repair a roof to get some quick money, the ground shook under him and by the time he got home people disappeared.

            There were no bodies. No blood.  Just unbearable silence.

            It was a day when time stopped existing. He didn’t need to keep track of it anymore so Stuart McCormick completely let go of it.

 

            When the boy who looked like his lost son appeared, he tried to reinvent the abstract concept. He started using numbers to mark the passing of time, tried to find noon, but he could only determine dawn, morning, dusk and night. Stuart even repaired the wristwatch he unearthed from the debris and tried to find the lost hours and minutes based on his previous knowledge on time. Not like Kenny was really interested in that. Whenever he had the time and he could slip away from Stuart giving him tasks he just wandered aimlessly trying to understand what had just happened to him.

            Humans died, but there he was with possibly of being the last humans on Earth.

            Why was he there? How did he survive?

 

            He got his answer on a rainy day when he was trying to put back a tile to the roof to prevent the water from getting in the house. Since many houses in the suburbs were lightweight constructions they started falling apart after few years of going unmaintained. Ironically enough, the once shabby McCormick residence ended up being the last one standing and Kenny was determined to protect it.

            The rain mercilessly poured down from the skies and even his parka couldn’t protect him from the wind that kept blowing raindrops into his eyes. He tried to push back the tile between the still intact ones, while pushing the one above it in order to wedge the missing tile under it. He was about to take a step back on the ladder when his hand slipped from the tile. He tried to grab the gutter, but with a pitiful clank it was torn out from under the roof. It couldn’t hold Kenny’s weight.

            The next moment his body crashed into the ground, he heard a crack and saw the ladder and the gutter following him, but couldn’t register the pain caused by the impact. He wanted to scream, but he couldn’t even open his mouth.

            _In and out. In and out._ He tried to catch his breath or at least regain some air that was pushed out of his lungs. His mind went into full panic mode when he noticed that his body wouldn’t obey him. He is going to die.

            He watched the sky as his consciousness slipped away from him. Kenny slowly opened and closed his eyes, before his breathing slowed and he let out a final sigh.

 

            _A doll. He saw a doll. A very familiar one._

_They had a similar one in the house._

_Then the doll was taken away by a girl. She was unfamiliar to Kenny._

_But the girl kept bringing the doll back to him, often in different clothes._

            Before he could have asked the girl about where she got the doll, he woke up in cold sweat. He could move. He could breath. But when he asked Stuart about what happened, he just shrugged, being angry about the gutter falling off.

            He couldn’t remember Kenny being hurt. He never saved him. He never brought Kenny in from the rain to help him despite the red bloodstain on the ground. He told Kenny, it belonged to some kind of wild animal.

            Kenny died and returned to life but Stuart didn’t notice and refused to acknowledge it. at first, this annoyed him to no end and wanted to just stand up and leave the man, but when he died again, by falling through a manhole when he was too preoccupied to look around on the main street he decided it was better this way. He didn’t want to stress the old man about it.

 

            However Kenny while thinking about his own death and immortality he forgot that Stuart didn’t share the same curse with him, thus he wouldn’t return when he dies. It was the biggest mistake he made and something that will haunt him for the rest of his days.

 

***

 

            It happened in the middle of summer and he was outside, trying to put back the house together, after he not only teared off the gutter but accidentally pulled off several tiles from the edge of the roof. He repeated the same process that he failed to complete on that rainy day. This time, with success.

            Inside he heard the old man tinkering with the furniture.  He probably pushed the table aside to make more room in the kitchen. In summer the kitchen was the coldest part of their house so they tried to collect whatever food they had found in that room in order to keep them fresh. Well, as much as it was possible with little to zero electricity. He went back to his work with a shrug, postponing the realization. He proudly looked back at his creation before walking in the house.

            Silence. He was greeted by utter silence as he stepped through the door. The old man didn’t respond even after he called his name. Panic rose in his heart as he walked through the living room straight into the kitchen, the last place he’d heard Stuart.

            Once he stepped into the kitchen he felt his heart stop. Everything he feared suddenly clashed over him as he watched the unmoving form sprawled on the floor. Cold sweat trickled down his back as he slowly took a step toward the man, searching of any signs of life. He would’ve noticed even the shallowest breath only to confirm that he was alive. But as he slowly kneeled next to Stuart, he remained still, cold, his body lifelessly following the momentum when Kenny shook him by the shoulder.

            He died and even after Kenny’s many experiences with unexplained revivals, he knew that  Stuart was dead for real and there was no day he would be returning the next day. Even if he was a bitter old man who became nostalgic after he mentioned his family and loved alcohol a bit too much, Kenny felt a strange connection a weird familiarity between them. And now that was severed by his worst nemesis, death itself.

 

            He dug a shallow grave in the yard where the sunrays barely scorched the earth, Stuart loved sitting there when he ordered Kenny around the garden they had taken care together. Once done, he put some rocks around it and sat by the makeshift grave, frowning at it. He should’ve felt sadness and grief but at the moment all he wanted was to punch Stuart. How could he leave him alone?!

            After two hours of staring into the distance he dragged himself inside and decided to touch the alcohol he had hidden from Stuart for obvious reasons. He wanted to drink it on a special occasion, like when this silent nightmare finally ends and they find other humans. But now he felt like he needed that Johnnie Walker Blue Label more than anything. He would probably down the whole bottle. However as he pulled the rug away from the board that could be remove easily he only found an empty bottle with a letter attached to it.

            A sad smile crept upon his face. He should’ve known that Stuart will sense the alcohol no matter how he tries to hide it…

 

            With shaking hands he opened the letter only to be greeted by the old man’s ugly handwriting.

 

_“Hey kiddo,_

_I’m afraid if you decided to touch your not-so-hidden stash of booze, I drank it. Built this house with a shitty friend of mine, what the heck did you expect? But if you are reading this, you can’t come after me anyway._

_I know you, Kenny, it feels like I’ve known you since you were born but I decided not to stress you about this. If you are truly my son, I want you to know that I regret being a sad excuse of a father. What I want you to know is, that after the End I felt disoriented all I wanted was to end it all. Then you came into the picture, looking like the long lost twin brother to my Kenny.  You gave me a new purpose in life._

_Go to the mansion on the hill. It’s on the other side of the town but there might be other survivors beside you. Feel free to take what you need and keep living in my stead.”_

            By the time he finished reading through the letter, tears came to his eyes and he finally let out a soft sob after feeling numb anger for hours. He sat there, gripping the empty bottle in on hand and the letter in the other, softly crying his eyes out. When he thought the pain has ended his breath hitched and tears welled up in his eyes again. He sniffled trying to keep his emotions at bay but he fought a losing war. He’d not only lost a friend but a father.

            He stood up around night, trying to find some kind of purpose but wherever he went he was greeted by the memories of a father he never had. That’s when he made his decision to follow the instructions written in the letter.

 

            Fat teardrops rolled down his face as he walked upstairs and started putting his things together. He ended up taking Karen’s doll,  her story of the dark vigilante and he carefully put away a photo of the whole family. He put away canned food, instant noodles, candies and water, despite the fact that nobody really stopped him from taking those away when he stumbled into them.

            Lastly he took the wristwatch Stuart worked so hard to repair. While he didn’t need time anymore, he wanted to keep the memory of a man who thought it was important in the past. For him, time died with Stuart McCormick.

 

            Kenny looked back at the house one last time, before he put on his fluffy orange parka and walked away to the world filled by the buzzing of hundreds of summer bugs.

 

            Yes, for the first time in his life, he was truly alone.

 


	2. Meeting on Roofs

            After leaving the house, Kenny had a clear plan in mind and a place he had to reach. However his determination quickly disappeared as he stepped over the rusty train tracks which lay almost right next to his former home. Even years before the End day, the tracks were already out of use, but served as infinite barriers for the McCormicks. Anything past them belonged to the richer side of South Park, the part of the town the family could never associate themselves with.

            Truth to be told, he kept going back by making up various excuses, only to spend a little more time in the house. It is the reason why he ended up with a baseball bat and the reason why this was actually the seventh time he stepped over the rusty rails today. Suddenly he felt like checking the roof, to make sure the house doesn’t collapse while he is away, but he decided to fight the urge and instead of looking back, he set his gaze forward, to the other side of the town.

            As he watched the house on the hill in the distance, he was caught by a strange feeling. The feeling of finality. Some sort of personal ending looming over the place, telling him to stay away.

            Because once he reaches that point, he will be left without a goal and a purpose in life. Without friends and family, or other human beings, he had nothing to neither live nor fight for. And this thought scared him to no end especially because he wouldn’t be able to end it all once he gets bored of life. Kenny just couldn’t imagine himself in a world as silent as this.

            Alone.

            Surrounded by the endless buzzing of grasshoppers.

            He took a determined step forward only to go right, following the path that led to the northern part of town. A smile appeared on his face. He felt like the hero who decided to learn about the world surrounding him, instead of rushing to defeat the evil wizard king and see the end game credits.  With the exception that in _his_ world, there was nothing to learn about and nobody to befriend. The only purpose of his detour was to stretch the length of his rewardless journey.

 

***

 

            With baseball bat in hand, he started wandering aimlessly near the group of buildings which were fenced away from the rest of the town. The words U-Stor-It were printed over a billboard. Several letters had fallen off from the building next to the entryway, but from the look of it, that was supposed to be some sort of reception.

            Kenny pushed the fenced gate open and stepped inside. He never really looked around the warehouses before. They were mostly filled with random junk and it was mostly too far away from his regular routes that led through the suburbs. Well, it was still a nice way to pass time and he might find something useful.

            He walked to the reception and stuffed most of the keys he had found into his pockets. He wasn’t really in the mood to walk all the way back, though he probably hadn’t planned on opening any of the storages either. Then, he started wandering around the place looking for any sign of humans. Most storage doors were open to some degree; some were bent when the roof caved in above them and he couldn’t open them without taking some risks first, but honestly, based on all the trash he had found, opening any of them was just waste of time and effort, unless he wanted to scatter a bag of plush animals and several boxes of Christmas decorations. None of them were too tempting in the summer heat.

 

            As he tried to find something out of the ordinary among the piles of garbage the clouds took on vivid orange hues and vibrant shades of red mixed together with purple and blue above his head. Even now, after experiencing the fall of night so many times, his heart started beating faster at the thought of darkness. Because under the veil of night the remnants of whatever left from the world came back to haunt him and Kenny wasn’t so keen on meeting them.

            If he had to describe these creatures, he would use ‘thought entities’. At first he thought about using the word ‘ghost’ but he had to realize that they came in various sizes and forms and entity described them way better. Some were as tiny as a pigeon, while others could easily tower over him and knock him to the ground. However what Kenny hated the most about them was their ability to inflict pain through emotions if they managed to wound him. It numbed his senses, made him dizzy to the point of throwing up and the static sounds that buzzed within his head made him want to die. While it lasted only for seconds, he immediately knew that this is how pure, unfiltered malice felt like. Blaming him for sins he didn’t commit, for the death he was not connected in any way.

            These entities were recollection of malicious memories only living to share their pain with people who were lucky enough to survive this disaster.  

            He could fight them, but it was a pointless war as most entities returned after few days and they started reappearing at the same spot. It was easier to just let them be and avoid them if he could.

            Not like he ever saw them actively hunting or chasing him. Thought entities usually become hostile when he was one or two metres away, possibly near the place the malicious thoughts and intents originated from, the resting place of the human source. Once Kenny left that spot, they disappeared.

            However, they were invisible for the naked eye and the easiest way to spot them was to keep a flashlight and wave it in their face. It stunned them, leaving enough time for him to leave the area, though even with his skilled lighting techniques, sometimes they managed to surround him and he suffered a hit or two.

            He got used to it by now, but still he hated dealing with these annoyances.

 

            Once he reached the end of the storages, he started rummaging around his bag in order to get his flashlight as a precaution. It wasn’t in his side pockets, neither in the main section. After checking the contents of the bag several times, he had to admit that out of everything, he’d left the flashlight at the McCormick house.

“Fuck!” he cursed, kicking a nearby metal drum. It answered with a pitiful, empty clang. However something else got his attention. Not too far away from him, he heard something falling to the ground, then several planks slipped from the side of one of the storages, stirring up clouds of dust. Thought entities didn’t make noise unless he revealed them or thy got way too close, and animals wouldn’t be able to cause this much ruckus. This only left him with only one possible option…

 

            Without hesitation, Kenny broke into a run, following the sound of footsteps until he heard a dull thud around one of the corners. When he got near, he saw a terrified boy, wearing an orange hoodie, and a blue backpack. Several stray tufts of red hair peeked out from under his green hat. He stopped metres away from him, but it was clearly visible that the boy was scared to death and he was already thinking about possible escape routes.

            He looked so familiar and Kenny had a feeling he had seen those green eyes somewhere.

            But before Kenny could’ve gotten any closer to the boy, he quickly scrambled to his feet, cautiously taking few steps away from him.

“This is impossible,” Kenny heard him muttering under his breath. “No way.”

“What do you mean?!” Kenny stepped closer, with baseball bat in his hand. It wasn’t the best course of action.

            The boy looked into his eyes, before turning around and dashing away. However, this time Kenny was ready for this and he followed him.

            He looked way too familiar for him to just let go of the boy without asking his name at least.

“Hey, wait!” he called after the, boy. “Let’s talk!”

 

            He was a fool to expect anything good from this. The boy looked back over his shoulder, before taking a quick turn to the left. Kenny followed but h was nowhere to be seen.

            The blonde patiently waited, slowly stepping forward without making a noise. Suddenly, he heard a creaking noise coming from the side of a building, and he saw brown shoes disappearing on the roof of one of the storages. Pushing the baseball bat between his back and the backpack, he climbed the metallic ladder as fast as he could, not disturbing himself, by the noises coming from the structure as his weight stated pulling it down. Once on the roof, he caught the sight of the familiar orange hoodie several buildings away.

“Hey! Wait for me! I just want to talk to you!” he used momentum to jump over the gap between two storages. Fortunately, the boy was way slower than him, or just got tired sooner because this time, it only took him a minute to catch up to him.

“I don’t want to talk to you!” the boy screamed at him in irritation. “You are not real!”

“Hey! Last time I checked I wasn’t a mirage! Now halt your fucking horses!” Kenny started arguing with him as they ran. If he reached out for the boy… he would be able to…

 

            He tried to reach out for the boy, his fingers brushed the fabric of the tattered, blue backpack. Kenny tried to push himself a little bit further and he managed to pull back the boy by the straps. However, he probably surprised the boy, because the next moment they crashed into each other. Kenny’s head hit the cold concrete roof of the warehouse as he felt the full weight of the boy on his chest. He saw stars for several moments, but even as he tried to catch his breath his running partner tried to stand up. Weakly floundering away like a newborn fawn.

“Leave me, alone,” they boy literally pleaded now.

“No way in hell,” Kenny sat up, his vision going blurry. Man, he’d really hit his head. 

 

            As he looked around, to see if he’d managed to lose something from his backpack thanks to the impact, a strange yellow object caught his attention. It was a flashlight. Way bigger than the little compact flashlight he’d left at home and he was pretty sure that nobody would leave it on a roof. Unless… His gaze wandered to the boy in front of him as he gripped the object.

            Now he had a reason to make him stop, at least.

            A triumphant smirk appeared on his lips as he stood up, dusted off his trousers and ran after the boy once again.

             Too bad, nobody could see the laughable stunt of the two, as they slowly ran out of breath only to start running again once they both managed to regain their energy. All of this  still taking place on the storage roofs.

“Leave me alone!” the boy panted as he stepped over another gap.

“In your dreams! Would it kill you to stop for a moment?!” Kenny asked in a hurt tone.

“Yes!” was the curt answer he got from the boy. Now, after watching the back of the familiar person, he started noticing small and rather entertaining details… like how parts of the green hat that covered the boy’s ears rhythmically flapped against the red locks of hair at each step. 

            It was adorable.

            If they had met under normal circumstances and didn’t play catch me if you can around U-Stor-I, he would’ve probably made a remark about it. Or at least compliment the looks of this handsome fellow. Right after punching him, of course.

 

            It was only matter of time before one of them made a mistake. A simple misstep was enough to end their little game.

            Kenny was both tired and way too distracted to notice the crack. The roof started to sink under his steps and before he had a chance to react the concrete completely gave in under him.

            He heard his name.

            _Someone_ who shouldn’t know Kenny, called him by his name.

            But he was too shocked to answer. 

            He landed on a pile of junk, cardboard boxes giving out under his weight while breaking his fall until his momentum stopped and he was looking at the hole above him. He had seen the familiar hat peeking out at the edge, giving him a worried glance. The boy was about to say something…

            However, Kenny also heard the familiar noise of the thought entities gathering around them. That slow, humming noise as the creatures stirred from their sleep.

            _Great._ They chased each other into a swarm. He heard the boy cursing above him, but everything seemed so distant, just like the footsteps receding on the roof. After the boy went away, the low humming noise disappeared too.

            In that sense, he was lucky. They wouldn’t torture him to death. But he also lost the boy. Probably… Based on the lack of sound around him, he was completely alone and since he was still gripping the boy’s flashlight he probably went to a safe spot.

            Kenny could only hope that he had a spare flashlight somewhere…

            He tiredly closed his eyes, trying to collect his thoughts.

 _I must’ve hit my head_ , he thought to himself bitterly as he tried to get up only to fall back a second later with a soft thud.

            He was way too tired for this tonight. The moment he closed his eyes again, drowsiness washed over his mind and his thoughts slowly turned into disconnected fragments. Today was really something! He felt more alive than ever before…

            While he was still grieving Stuart a completely new kind of thought started bubbling at the back of his mind. The chance to talk to another human!

            And those green eyes…

            A dumb smile spread over his face.

“What a day…” he whispered, before both emotional and physical fatigue finally caught up to him.

            He completely missed the soft metallic whir reverberating in the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this chapter was fun! Interesting in a certain way and a great way to explore various writing techniques! I definitely don't feel as rusty anymore. 
> 
> Also we finally have every rule of the world set in place so the dance can finally start! Kenny is still not out of the woods yet, and a certain someone just lost his flaslight...!


	3. Do Robots Dream of a Silent World?

_A blue car crashed into a red plane. It was wrong. That scene could never happen in reality._

_His logic seemingly got messed up and it took him a moment to realize the freshly cut, wet grass around the vehicles and the hands that held the toys. It was only make believe!_

_He looked up to see who was sitting in front of him, but the entire world around him buzzed with static._

_It felt like watching an old television suddenly losing signal. He could make out the colours of green and orange, but the facial features were lost in static._

 

            When Kenny finally woke up, moonlight trickled into the storage room. The boxes that fell on him still weighed heavy on his chest, making sure to keep him in place. He raised his head and tried to look around in the storage he was trapped in, but he could only make out several boxes and one or two shelves in the dim light. However, upon first glance he could see that all of them had some kind of writings made by markers, so there was a possibility that he had dropped into some kind of family scrap depot.

            While he collected his strength he listened to his surroundings, but only the song of crickets entertained him with its rhythmic humming. The boy was probably long gone from the area without ever feeling the need to return. Maybe he _did_ return and just left when he saw his unmoving body… Kenny was probably out for a day at least, because he felt extremely hungry after he got past his initial grogginess.

            Then, he tried to sneak his arms to the edge of the box in order to get a better grip on it. As he started pushing it toward his legs, he felt that the upper corner is stopped by something, probably another box. He readied himself for the incoming wave of cardboard as he finally pushed the box off of his stomach, but he only felt some light weight falling on him. The rest of the impact was almost non-existent.

             After throwing it away he could finally slip off from the tower that held him prisoner.

 

            The room was nothing spectacular. He reached for the flashlight the boy left, smiling to himself bitterly. He didn’t even come back for it, or just simply had a spare wherever he took shelter. Nevertheless, it was a nice gift that came in handy in the pitch black warehouse.

            Kenny waved his new flashlight around, trying to find something useful or dried food that could save him from eating one of his expired cans. Technically they were edible; however, the taste changed or just completely disappeared over the years. He preferred anything else over them. Next to the pile of cardboard boxes another stack was neatly built next to the wall, all of them bearing labels written by a thick, black marker. **Clothes, Toys, School, Toys II** … Kenny’s gaze got caught on **Snacks**.

            Maybe Fortuna finally smiled upon him!

 

            After his big discovery, he hastily gave a quick read to the other boxes and pulled out the **Snacks** box from the middle of the stack. His face lit up as he tore the scotch tape off the opening. Just like he had been hoping for, he just hit the jackpot! The box was filled with sugary sweets and other unhealthy snacks. Kenny warily took out a bar of chocolate, but as he was about to bite into it, beneath the wrapping paper, he immediately saw the whitish coating. Cocoa butter made it to the surface, drying out the entire bar in the process developing a texture similar to dirt. He grudgingly slipped the chocolate back into its package, it would taste much better after he melted it and poured it into the silicon shapes that one could find at almost every household in South Park. That, and Tupperwares.

            Or he could just let the summer heat do the trick.

            Both worked for Kenny as he had all the time in the world.

            He stuffed few unopened bars into his bag and continued rummaging through the contents of the box. Whoever used to be its previous owner, they left Kenny a mountain of junk food, untouched by the years. Kenny happily tore open a bag of Cheesypoofs. They smelled like stinky feet, but as he sat on the cold concrete floor, stuffing the orange chips into his mouth, Kenny couldn’t care less. Artificial trash like this was hard to come by and he wouldn’t refuse a chance to gobble up an entire bag of it, enjoying the fact that something still hadn’t gone stall and tasteless over the years.

 

            As he munched, his thoughts wandered back to the boy, he just met… probably a day ago. Sadly, the ache in his body made it known that he didn’t just nap for an hour or two. But where was that boy now? Did he have some kind of shelter in town? What if he was actually some new kind of monster? At the same time, he looked so familiar and it seemed like the familiarity was mutual to some level. They boy certainly wasn’t hostile. He just acted like he had seen a ghost, which was the normal reaction if he knew “Kenny” from somewhere.

            If he could find the boy, maybe he would finally find out what happened and who he is. Or at least, he would have a human companion, before he befriends a rock, a ball or some other inanimate object.

            Listening to your own thoughts all day can get torturing after some time.

 

            He looked around the storage room one more time, opening boxes only to find random useless junks. Whoever rented this place had some serious problems with letting their toys go. He put away some snacks, then pushed the rest back to its place. If he ever needs them, he can just come back later. However, he pushed the last box with more force than he should’ve and the next moment empty paint cans rolled on the floor, their metallic sounds echoing in the room.

            It’s not like anyone would come and get him for making noise. Thought entities were bonded to a set area and if they haven’t introduced themselves yet, then the place was probably clean.

            However, what came after made his blood freeze in his veins.

            Something crashed in the storage next to him. Something heavy.

“…elp…”

            It was faint, but he had heard a voice.

“Danger, Danger.”

“Help. I’m in danger. Malfunction.”

            He stepped closer to the wall.

“Is anybody there?”

“I require help.” a monotone voice answered him from the other side. “I happened to run into an obstacle. Error.”

“Who are you?” Kenny tried again, but the owner of the voice seemingly didn’t hear him.

 

            While his brain told him to just focus on himself and leave, part of him wanted someone to talk to. As long as there was a chance for that, he couldn’t turn his back to anyone even if they wanted to cut his throat in the moment he turned his back to them.

            Kenny had to spend only few days alone so far, he was already sick of the silence and loneliness that came with it. He thought about it for several seconds before he started making a plan to get to the other storage. He really had nothing to lose at this point.

 

            Technically, he had keys. But there was no guarantee that he had the key to the other storage, or that the lock itself was still useable. There was also a possibility of the entire lock getting eaten by rust over the years. In that case, he could just get rid of it with a well-aimed hit.

“Well… I won’t know until I try,” he murmured to himself, then turned toward the source of the voice. “Be patient, I’ll get you out somehow!”

            Whoever it was, it probably couldn’t hear him.

 

            Kenny looked up at the hole in the ceiling; through it, he could still see the stars in the sky. The hues became lighter, signalling the arrival of dusk, but it was still dark enough out there for the weaker thought entities. Based on his experiences, most of these ghost-like creatures hated sunlight and they were ushered into hiding in daylight. Sadly, some of them were strong enough to break this law and gave Kenny a heart attack whenever they attacked him out of the blue. Because of this, going into houses and opening doors were one of the most hated things in his to do list.

 

            He used the boxes, putting them next to each other, stacking some of them, to create stairs for his escape. The construction scrunched and wobbled under his weight, so he had to plan every step ahead, keeping his balance when top of the cardboard dented in his wake.

            One step at a time. Slowly and carefully.

            When Kenny finally reached the top, he slowly pulled the baseball bat from out of the gap between the backpack and his back. He was ready to fight.

            The entities didn’t hesitate to attack, either. Slowly, they started floating toward him, reaching out with their transparent feelers. Kenny quickly ducked, before swinging the bat toward the creatures. They had their strength in their number, because they could swarm over survivors, stinging them like sentient jellyfish and torturing their preys with the anger and regret they felt over their death. One hit, and they disappeared with a pitiful gasp.

            It was only five of them, Kenny had to fight off worse waves than that before, so this was more like a swinging practice than an actual fight. The entities disappeared into thin air in order to regain their strength, and finally let him climb down from the storage to take a better look on the door.

            The lock was still intact. Rusty on the outside, but hopefully, it would still work without him having to use force on it. The number 32 was painted on the wall in black and while it took him some time, he finally managed to fish out the key that bore the same number. The padlock opened with a loud click and he threw it to the ground. Nobody will scream at him for not taking care of their property.

           

            Kenny had no idea what to expect when he opened the door and pulled out his borrowed flashlight. The storage went silent, and it didn’t seem like anyone ever lived there. The lettering of the boxes was identical to the ones he had seen in the storage next to him. Probably the same family rented both, when they got afraid of trash burying them alive.

            He stepped inside, searching for the source of the voice.

“Hey, if you want to leave, this is your chance!” he called the person.

            For a moment, everything went silent around him. Only the bugs sung their regular nightly song as final farewell to darkness.

“Help.”

            Something stirred under a pile of boxes. It moved but it couldn’t escape. Kenny stepped closer examining the source again, but something didn’t add up. Whatever was trapped under the boxes, it was too small to be a person. He collected his courage and threw the boxes away from his way, revealing something that resembled a tiny brown oven. Something one could find at a toyshop. Whoever made the thing didn’t spare duct tape as it was covered in random electronical devices and tools that probably had no real purpose. It looked like a cheap robot from one of those black and white sci-fi movies, without the space babes.

“I better get my space helmet...” he muttered as he waited for a reaction. The robot lacked any signs of friendliness. It was crude, rectangular, like it had been imagined by a kid who just got the hang of making robot costumes from cardboard boxes. However, Kenny couldn’t really see it as a tool of mass destruction. Probably nothing will go wrong.

            The robot started moving, slowly turning toward him by making tiny steps forward then backward. On its forehead and chest, tiny led lights lit up when he finally faced Kenny. It barely reached up until the boy’s hip. He only noticed the childish lettering of “A.W.E.S.O.M.-O” later.

“Greetings, human. I’m the A.W.E.S.O.M.-O 6000. I’ll be your new best friend.”

“I have to decline your offer. I don’t really need new best friends. I want to find out who were my old best friends first...” he answered back to the robot with irritation in his voice. He had no idea why he got so pissed off at the implications of having new best friends, though.

            The thing probably operated on a set string of sentences, repeating his introduction if he is patient enough. However, while it completely disregarded the nature of Kenny’s answer, A.W.E.S.O.M.-O seemed to react in a new kind of way.

“I am too, in search for my best friends.”

“Well, good luck then. Glad to be of help.” Kenny was about to leave. He couldn’t waste his time playing with a Tin Man when there was a living human being somewhere in town.

“Wait. We could be beneficial to each other.”

            For some reason, he doubted that. Raising a brow, he waited for the robot to elaborate on his plan.

“You can help me, and I will do my best to help you. We could both profit from this.”

“According to Asimov’s laws of robotics, you should be the one following my orders.” Kenny countered, but the robot just let out a metallic laugh.

“Bullshit. As a lifeform that is destined to outlive you, humans, I’m clearly superior.”

“Even robots malfunction and need a human to put them together.” Kenny smirked, but the robot stayed relentless.

“I won’t. So, are you going to help me, or what?”

            Yeah. Obviously he won’t malfunction. Kenny was tempted to laugh at the dumbest robot he had ever seen. Worse, he swore the tin man reminded him of someone, but he just couldn’t put a finger on it. If this was a person, he would’ve left his ass and ran to run as fast as he could. Curse his wish to find company!

            Which… was an eerily similar reaction to how the boy with the green trapper hat treated him. It made Kenny wonder if he had similar problems with him….

 

            He didn’t want to drag around something that would only slow him down. However, he couldn’t deny the fact that deep down he appreciated company, even if it came in the form of a super annoying, small robot.

“ _Deal._ I’ll help you.” he nodded. “So who are these friends of yours? Robots like you? Or perhaps, humans?”

“Oh no, no, no. My human friends were lame, all three of them. These are my real friends who were there for me in times of need.” the robot explained.

            This made Kenny stop in his tracks. Did he just say that he had human friends? How?

“If you have real friends then how did you end up in that storage?”

“No information regarding said events.” A.W.E.S.O.M.-O suddenly spoke in a monotone, robotic tone. It seemed, despite the surprisingly good AI, he still had automatic references built into his program.

“Alright. And where are your real friends?” asked Kenny, putting his hands on his hip.

“Clyde is here, I’m 70% sure of that.” the robot told him, then started walking to a metal shelf. His tiny claw hands reached up but, he could barely scratch the box on the second shelf. “Up there. In that box.”

 

            Kenny silently hoped that by taking the box off from the shelf, he won’t contribute to robots taking over the world. For some reason, he couldn’t trust A.W.E.S.O.M.-O. It seemed like the type of killer droid that would stab a man if it has a chance, so no wonder he hesitated when he opened the box.

            Only to find out, it was filled with toys.

“So…” Kenny gave A.W.E.S.O.M.-O a confused look. “Which one of _these_ is your friend?”

“Clyde is green.” The robot answered impatiently.

            _Green. Green._ It would’ve been easier if he didn’t have to figure out the right colours at night by using a mere flashlight. he could only see black and darker black. The box was filled with random junks from cars to plushies, None of them really struck him as Clyde-ish. Kenny helplessly rummaged through the trash, before he had enough and pulled out an extremely ugly, dark green frog-like toy. It looked like the disowned brother of Kermit, who turned to crime at an early age.

            Was this Clyde?

“Is it this one?” he held the frog in front of A.W.E.S.O.M.-O with stoic expression.

“Correct.” he beeped somewhat ecstatically. “Quest completed. Next goal: Taking the subject home.”

            For some reason, Kenny had a feeling that things will get only weirder after this. Especially, because he had to put up with a being that seemed to have fun by making him jump around like an idiot. He put the toy on the head of the robot and waited for further instructions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this took me a while, but I have to admit, I'm quite satisfied by this part of the chapter!
> 
> The space helmet solves every problem!


	4. Hysteresis

 

            Even despite his negative feelings, Kenny ended up tailing after A.W.E.S.O.M.-O, who proudly walked at the speed of a very determined snail and led him to the suburbs of South Park. Truth to be told, ever since he started living with Stuart, he did his best to avoid these parts of the town. For some unknown reason, they made him uncomfortable and tugged at something deep within his soul.

            Something told him, he didn’t belong there.

            And then, there was this weird gut feeling that never appeared until now. If it wasn’t for A.W.E.S.O.M.-O, he would have walked to a different direction and take a detour, avoiding this place altogether. Not even the morning sun could take away the nervousness that made his legs weak.

“Who lived here?” Kenny asked out of curiosity when he looked at the neatly lined buildings.

            The robot walked for a while before finally answering.

“On this side of the street? The coolest people. Except Kyle. Kyle was a greedy bastard who always found time to kick me for one thing or another. And so was Craig, but Craig was a neutral bastard and kept his distance. Not like Kyle.”

“Alright, I get it. And who was Kyle?” he tried asking more, hoping to jog his own memory a bit. The name definitely sounded familiar and the dislike this robot had for this person piqued his interest.

“ _Data not found… Processing…_ Kyle was a human. A human like you.”

            Kenny couldn’t help but smile bitterly. He wouldn’t really call immortal beings humans but the robot would probably ignore his reasoning. Also if Kyle was indeed a human, he probably died with the rest of the town’s population, unless he was special in some way. Which Kenny doubted. But then again, he was talking to a robot this entire morning, so nothing was truly impossible anymore, right?

“You just couldn’t trust him---“

            As he was mumbling to himself, A.W.E.S.O.M.-O suddenly stopped mid-tracks causing Kenny to bump into him. His hydraulic legs collapsing back to its original state. The soft whirling of his motor grew quiet for a second, before coming back to life.

            It was strange, but then again, electronical devices sometimes had these kind of short power outages. Especially if their battery was several years old and the chemical reactions start to slow down. However, even though he knew the reason for the phenomena, he would never admit that he forgot to breathe for a minute.

            The robot slowly stood up and a static voice left its speaker.

“Greetings, human. I’m the A.W.E.S.O.M.-O 6000. I’ll be your new best friend.”

            Kenny didn’t know whether he should laugh or scream at the situation. Did the robot just do a complete reboot and delete everything they talked about up until know. He didn’t even turn to Kenny as he greeted him!

 

            _“My save state just got deleted again! That’s not fair!”_

_Someone complained loudly and he heard a sofa screeching, and the sound of footsteps echoed in the room._

             Kenny looked around, but this time, he couldn’t see the scene. Only listen to it. He had heard three different voices. A sigh, a laugh and a groan.

_“Maybe you should get a normal cartridge instead of your bootlegs? Or I could lend you some of my games.”_

_“Bootlegs work just like the original! They just need more care!”_

_“Then don’t whine about your save state being auto-erased because of shitty batteries, poor boy!”_

 

            Deleted save state…? He couldn’t help but look at A.W.E.S.O.M.-O who was standing around idly as if it was waiting for a command or a question. Kenny coughed behind him, and as if waiting for a signal, the robot slowly turned around, raising his thick legs.

“Greetings.” Kenny started, his voice broke a little. Just when he thought he finally managed to find someone he had to think about the possibility of losing them. Again.

“What might be your business here, Earthling?” the robot chirped and beeped.

“I…” Kenny took a deep breath, pushing the hopeless feeling back to where it came from. “I’m looking for someone. A boy wearing green trapper hat and an orange jacket.”

            The robot didn’t answer him. It was still processing the information that Kenny gave him.

“Sounds awfully familiar. How convenient, I’m also looking for someone. My friends.” 

“The real ones, I assume.”

“Exactly. You are sharp for a human. You may tag along. A.W.E.S.O.M.-O gives you permission.” the robot chirped happily, but Kenny couldn’t really share his enthusiasm. It was like watching a toy restarting its monologue when its program came to an end. Just push the button and the toy starts talking again, repeating the same sentences!

“So, where are we going exactly?” Kenny asked, trying to get back into talking with the robot again.

“To my house, of course. Fortunately, we are not far away.”

“And do you remember which one was your house?” Kenny raised a brow.

“Green. It was a green house. Just like Clyde. That green.”

            Kenny groaned under his breath. Again with the colour green! He missed the old A.W.E.S.O.M.-O. It was less annoying and had its own bossy charm. This rebooted version was just dumb and made him want to hide in one of the houses. The robot would probably walk after him demanding Kenny to follow him to a Clyde-green house.

 

            He felt strangely relieved when he finally saw a bright green house. It looked like someone truly got their source of inspiration from real life frogs. The only thing missing was a deep croaking noise, but sadly, the only sound nature had provided was the buzzing of grasshoppers, who seemed to enjoy the overgrown vegetation.

            A.W.E.S.O.M.-O walked to the front door with heavy steps, often stopping for several seconds, before resuming his walk. Circuit problems, again…

            In the end, he was stopped by a closed door.

“A little help, perhaps?” he beeped with demanding tone.

“What happened to your home, A.W.E.S.O.M.-O?” Kenny asked, opening the door for the robot.

“Mom was a terrible house owner. That’s what happened to it.”

“Oh… you never talked about your mom.” A robot having a mom was unheard of. Did he just talk about his maker? Or did he have a mother who took care of him? Like Pinocchio and Geppetto.

“She is not worth talking about it. Just like my old friends, she abandoned me.” A.W.E.S.O.M.-O’s tone seemed to change somewhat, one in, the robot just rested on the carpet, not moving an inch.

“I can’t get up the stairs. So it’s up to you to get me my friends. They are in my room.” he ordered Kenny, never even looking at him as the green light flickered on the top of the robot’s head. If he only had more information on said friends… Knowing A.W.E.S.O.M.-O they were probably toys like the frog.

 

 

            Kenny hastily climbed the stairs and opened the closest door. It seemingly belonged to a child. It was messy, toys and notebooks lay everywhere, the bed looked like a dog bed, thick layer of dust signalling that it was left this way several years ago. He curiously opened a notebook only to be greeted by crude drawings of stick figures having sex, next to them were several angry notes and vows for revenge. He wanted to check the rest of the notebooks; maybe he would find a name or a drawing of the boy he tried to find… But then he realized, that several years have passed and both of them were young so it was unlikely he would find anything, though.

            Instead he focused on his task and he collected whatever toys he could, starting with a panda and a soldier. He grabbed a doll from the bed and went for the purple dragon, before returning to the living room.

            A.W.E.S.O.M.-O didn’t react at first, but once Kenny threw the toys in front of him, he slowly looked up.

“Oh, great! Wonderful! You are back, Kenny and you even managed to gather everyone! I thought you bailed on me or left like the others.” Something was wrong. This was not the robotic voice he got used to.

            Also the way A.W.E.S.O.M.-O spoke his name made him take a step back. He didn’t remember any introductions not in the storage and not after the robot made an emergency shut down.

“I don’t think I’m the Kenny you knew.” he told A.W.E.S.O.M.-O, but the robot only shook his head, making a whizzing sound with each movement.

“Bullshit. Who else would you be? Local homeless hobo?” he could hear A.W.E.S.O.M.-O snort despite his robotic voice. “Even your voice is the same, dumbass!”

“I’m just… Kenny.”

“You were always _just_ Kenny. The boy who was _just_ there and kept--” A.W.E.S.O.M.-O retorted and Kenny was about to start arguing with him, when another monotone message left the speakers of the tiny robot. “ _Warning. Battery low_.”

“This won’t work on me, A.W.E.S.O.M.-O! Don’t try to escape by faking malfunction!”

            However, A.W.E.S.O.M.-O didn’t reply, it just kept repeating the same error message over and over again.

_“Warning. Battery low.”_

_“Warning. Battery low.”_

_“Warning. Battery low.”_

            When did the green light in its head turn red? Kenny quickly kneeled right in front of his companion, trying to push buttons, searching for a way to exchange batteries. He couldn’t see any panels; even most of the buttons were just stuck there using superglue.

“Don’t do this to me, you piece of trash!” he growled at the robot, hating the fact that he never mentioned anything about batteries. But then again, it was a wonder that something worked so well after spending years of his storage prison. “You can’t just… you can’t just die on me after you dragged me through the town!”

“ _Battery has been depleted.”_

 

            With that the lights on A.W.E.S.O.M.-O’s body flared up for one last tune then went dark, his internal motor slowly come to a halt as electricity stopped flowing through his system. Silence enveloped the room, however even without the lights, Kenny could still hear a sound coming from the tin body. It sounded clear, like the voice in his memories.

“Wow, _Kinny_ you look pathetic. Like someone just punched you in the gut and left you on the roadside to rot. I can’t believe you are the last one I have to see in the after shit hit the fan! That’s my luck… Still better than seeing _Kahl_ , though! And you haven’t even changed a bit. Can’t believe you are still wearing that ratty old hoodie, though. Thought you could scrap together something fashionable when everyone else is gone and you don’t need money anymore.”

“We will find you a new battery!” Kenny told him, letting the comments go past him.

“Good luck with that! I hate being a robot, so don’t even bother searching for one. I’m glad your poor ass saved A.W.E.S.O.M.-O, though. We didn’t have much time together, but it reminded me of when we did stupid shit with the gang. You followed me around just the same.”

“But I never…”

“You did. End of story. Don’t even try to explain yourself out of it. I don’t have much time left, and I have no freaking idea why the poorest kid survived the apocalypse, but god luck out there, I guess. I waited for years, thinking about all the food I could never eat and all the games that I could never play anymore, until I woke up in that storage. I honestly got fed up with this. It’s boring.”

            With that A.W.E.S.O.M.-O went completely silent. Kenny could hear his heart pounding in his chest as he immediately reached for the button on its side. This should be the one that functions as an on/off button. He pushed it twice, hoping to revive the broken machine in front of him.

“Don’t you dare to do this to me! You know what happened, you have to tell me at least! Where is everyone?! Why am I all alone?!”

            The machine stayed silent for a while, before the lights finally came back,

“Greetings, human. I’m the A.W.E.S.O.M.-O 6000... …I’ll be your new best friend.”

“No. Don’t start with this. Come back!” he punched the shoulder of the robot as a desperate attempt to shake him back to his senses. He didn’t even notice the tears in the corner of his eyes. “You have to tell me! Give me a lead at least!”

“ _32 seconds until complete termination of operation._ ”

“No!” he argued with the robot. “No! No! No! _No_!”

            Kenny turned A.W.E.S.O.M.-O around, trying to find the place for its battery, but the robot lacked any lids that could help him reach the battery without taking the robot apart. He wasn’t sure what he would put in the place of the corroded one, but he had to give it a try.

            However, as A.W.E.S.O.M.-O stopped working, a realization hit Kenny and he had to sit back on the carpet to take recollect himself. The robot is gone. There was no A.W.E.S.O.M.-O anymore. It was just a lifeless heap of metal waiting to be eaten by rust, surrounded by his favourite toys. Years after people have disappeared, he wouldn’t be able to find a working battery or even if he did, maybe A.W.E.S.O.M.-O wouldn’t be the same. Maybe he would be stuck at the same three or four sentences his memory could hold.

            That would certainly go against A.W.E.S.O.M.-O’s wishes.

 

. . .

 

            The sun was high up in the sky when Kenny dragged the robot out to the backyard. He didn’t wail or sob as he searched for a shovel, however this still didn’t mean that he said goodbye without tears. While they weren’t that close, losing A.W.E.S.O.M.-O still meant that he lost a companion, someone who could easy the loneliness of the silent world around him. he thought about bringing him up to his room, but that would go against everything the robot had told him.

            Waiting for years, not being able to do what he really wanted to do…

            Tears clouded his eyes, rolling down on his face one after another as he started digging a hole in the ground, occasionally sniffing when he needed to take a deeper breath. While the reaction was always different, death was devastating no matter where it came from.

            When he felt that the hole was deep enough, he climbed out with a sigh and slowly pushed A.W.E.S.O.M.-O’s body into the makeshift grave. Then he pulled in the toys he had left at the side, carefully putting them right next to the robot. He wanted to see them so badly and Kenny didn’t have the heart to bury him alone. A tightening came into his face as he climbed out and started pushing the dirt back, slowly burying A.W.E.S.O.M.-O… no… someone else “Kenny” used to know.

            And honestly, everything in this town seemed to be connected to him in some way. This other Kenny... He couldn’t help but wonder who was he? Local troublemaker? A social butterfly? Why was he so important for everyone? And why wasn’t Kenny important to anyone? Just what did he do to leave an impact on an entire town?

            Most importantly… Why did _he_ had to stumble into the memories this person left behind years ago?

            Deep down, he couldn’t help but feel jealous of his doppelgänger and the love that surrounded him…

         

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With the last vestige of summer... I present you the final part of A.W.E.S.O.M.-O's arc... that will become complete once Kyle finally shows up and adds his side to the story.


	5. Tangled in Headlines

            After saying his farewells to the tiny robot, Kenny silently walked back to the house and tried to keep his eyes away from the grave. In the middle of the chaos, he hasn’t had the time to properly look around the rundown building and how his memories started clashing with reality. Thick layer of dust made its home on everything, hiding away the patterns on the couch and turning his hand black as he took the stairs toward the room that has supposedly belonged to A.W.E.S.O.M.-O. On his first visit, he didn’t notice it, but the room was even messier than he remembered. Dust covered almost everything and the leaves that ended up there through the open window completely dried out, crunching weakly under his steps. Notebooks and pieces of crumpled papers covered the floor and the bed, combined with childish drawings that were stained by the colour of age.  Kenny was pretty sure all of these random junks belonged to a kid, or a teen, who stayed ten years old in heart.

            He put his hand on the highest knob of a drawer, but as he tried to pull it out the knob itself remained in his hand, while the rest of the furniture stood still. He whispered a simple curse under his breath, and he would have left it at that, if his curiosity wouldn’t have taken control over his course of actions. Grabbing a lone pen, he wedged it between the drawer and the desk, slowly prying it open by pushing the pieces apart. Once he could grab onto the edge of the drawer he pulled it open… only to be greeted by even more trash. Old ticket stubs, hundreds of expired coupons for KFC and McDonald’s… Kenny carefully started taking them out from the drawer, then laying them on the desk, until he stumbled into a glossy paper. As he pulled it out, beneath the scratches and dried out smudges, he saw four boys, all smiling wildly at the camera.

            From the right side of the picture the same blue eyes looked back at him. Mocking him with that modest smile. While he had no knowledge about the blond kid in the picture, pang of jealousy and loneliness echoed in his heart. All he had was the silence of the world, while those people in the picture still had a chance to have fun… to have friends. His gaze then wandered to the boy next to the blond. Red hair sticking out from under a blaringly green trapper hat. Though, the boy looked younger, with way more liveliness and with less stress than his present counterpart. However, something was off. Humans were gone, yet this boy was anything but a monster.

            At first, Kenny wanted to find him to have some company, but now he was seriously interested in the methods he managed to outlive everyone else without aging. Just what was so special in this boy? Was he the cause of this mess?

            Considering how they all seemed to be good friends, maybe they were in this together. In this case, it explained why the boy was so shocked when they first met. To him, _Kenny_ was the monster taking the shape of someone he used to know. The ghost of his dead friend.

            For some reason, the thought suddenly made his chest feel tight. He felt terrible.

            The only survivor of the End refused to acknowledge him as his own person and probably did everything to avoid Kenny at all cost. Sure, rejection always hurt, but the type of rejection where you are denied of any type of communication, thanks to someone you don’t even know, felt like salt in a wound mixed with a nauseating anger that made his stomach clench in frustration.

            Yet, instead of tearing the picture apart, he wordlessly slipped it into the backpocket of his jeans, hoping that he will have a chance to ask the red-haired boy about the kids in the picture.

 

            Kenny silently continued his exploration in the kitchen, hoping to find something salvageable, but the years weren’t so kind on the cupboard and its seemingly infinite amount of snacks. Once something contacted with air, there was a chance that it would turn into a green or white amalgamation and sadly, most even when they were still unopened a black layer of mold appeared on the surface of baked goods. He naively opened the fridge, but regretted his curiosity the moment the smell of rotting meat and dairy hit him, upsetting his stomach almost immediately. It was only matter of seconds until his meager breakfast decided it wants to visit to the outside word.

            Fighting down his nausea, he quickly slammed the fridge shut and made his escape toward the glass door that led to the garden. Or at least, what used to be a garden. Trees and bushes had completely taken over the place creating an almost impassable mass of greenery that prevented him from exploring further. Reluctantly, he turned back toward the kitchen, where the stench slowly enveloped the entire room in the meantime. Holding back his breath, Kenny quickly opened the cupboards, but when he realized that the family either didn’t keep canned food at home or it was already cleaned up by someone, he hastily made his exit toward the main entrance, slamming the door behind him as if he was chased by a monster.

            It was not far away from truth. There was something about the smell of death and decay that made his stomach churn and stole all the light away from his thoughts. As he slumped against the door, faintly, he remembered a nightmare that kept haunting him ever since he woke up in this desolated town.

            Closing his eyes, he recalled a voice calling his name…

_It was strained, probably because this wasn’t the first the name “Kenny” echoed through the forest._

_He wanted to answer, to open his mouth and let his voice out but his whole body went rigid from the cold._

_A ray of light flashed above him, illuminating the forest around his body, but the light never reached his body and before he knew, he was left alone in the darkness._

 

“It’s not that different,” he pondered.

            Whenever he meets someone they leave him almost immediately, leaving him to rot alone. At this point, he started considering the possibility that he is the one who disrupts the sensitive balance of this town. That he is an anomaly… Maybe when he finally meets the boy in the picture, he too, will leave him almost immediately…

            But avoiding his fate would only torture his thoughts in the future. Maybe this time will be different, he comforted himself silently.

 

            Finally mustering enough strength, Kenny decided to leave the house of A.W.E.S.O.M.-O behind. However, as he walked he constantly heard the disapproving murmur of the robot. A phantom noise, really, but it was enough to send shivers down Kenny’s spine in the summer heat and make him quickly change his mind and hide in the next house. Even if he wanted to get away, part of him made him stay in the rundown suburbs. He never stopped hoping that maybe, when he expects it the least, he will hear that bossy voice coming from the pile of earth, demanding to be freed from its temporary grave.

            Kenny shook his head as if that could help him bury these thoughts and go on with his life.

            A.W.E.S.O.M-O was dead. There was nothing to be done about it.

            Stuart’s death was easier to accept, even if he kept hoping that his actions were only part of a feverish dream. There was always a thought worming his way up to him, that maybe he came back from death while Kenny was away and now he was waiting for him at home, worrying about the only human he’d met over the years. But each time before he would rush back to the house, Kenny quickly reminded himself that _he_ was an exception… A one of a kind immortal.

            However, A.W.E.S.O.M-O was not a living, breathing being. He could return… And if Kenny is not around when that happens, he will be haunted by the guilt of burying someone alive. He couldn’t leave.

 Not yet.

           

            Without realizing, he arrived in front of a dark green house, and his shaking hands were already on the doorknob. Away, away from the frog green house, but not too far away.

            To his surprise, the door opened without any problems, he didn’t even have to pull it with strength and he was already greeted by the glaringly purple walls of a living room.

“Hello…!” he called, but his voice was gobbled up by the building.

“Well, I’m coming in!” he stated, he made a tiny jump over the threshold, making his entire backpack rattle from the sudden movement. The house was surprisingly clean, even by post-apocalypse standards. Aside from dust, the rooms could make their way into some kind of interior design magazine.

            Sterilized. That was his first thought. As if nobody really lived here, however when he opened the cupboards, they were full of powdered soups and various small bags of sauces and spices. The soups might come in handy later, but right now he had nowhere to put them so he just ended up leaving them. This time, however, he was wise enough not to experiment on the fridge and avoided it a far as he could…

           

            Kenny went through the house and just like before, he carefully looked around in hope that he can find a clue or something that would tell him more about the past. Clean clothes, everything in perfect condition, not a single trash on the floor. He started wondering who lived there and how come they managed to keep this place so organized even after the earthquakes Stuart told him about…?

            He was about to open another door, when he realized it wouldn’t budge. Probably he would’ve left it at that, but when only one door is closed in an entire house you get curious. Something told Kenny that he had to get in somehow.

            But how?

            He walked around like a tiger in its cage, setting down his backpack and rummaging in its side pockets. Locks worked in a way where you had to turn a mechanism inside them, and that pushed a metal plate between the door and thee doorframe, effectively preventing its movement, right? Following this logic, if he could somehow pull this mechanism back, then he door would open!

            He pulled out a knife from his pocket along with several screwdrivers. One of them had to be slim enough so he could move the lock…

            In the end he wedged the tip of the screwdriver into the middle of the doorknob, and once he managed to get a grip on the small slit, he carefully started twisting it in the opposite direction from the doorframe. It took him several tries, because his hand slipped off from the knob or he put too much force on the lock and lost his grip on the screwdriver, but after making a full turn he heard a satisfying click.

“Woohoo!” he exclaimed with a proud grin. Finally something positive happens in his miserable life!

 

            The room was surprisingly dark where only a thin ray of light managed to get through the heavy curtains, and unlike the rest of the house, the moment Kenny stepped inside, he felt his foot hit something on the floor. Looking down, he saw newspapers scattered all around the carpet, it was almost impossible to make out the words in the dim light, however even now, it was easy to see that some of these newspapers had missing articles and entire pages cut. Kenny could see scribbles, circles made with black markers around various headlines.

            Driven by curiosity he walked over to the window and pulled away the curtains, the sun was already nearing its resting place in the west. If he wanted to do some detective work, he had to be quick. Not like he couldn’t really use the borrowed flashlight, but he preferred to save power for important moments. He already considered himself lucky whenever he managed to find a pair of batteries that lasted more than a single flash of light, after all.

            He looked at the dust-covered desk that sat across the bed and currently it was the resting place of the missing snippets. Kenny felt bad when he ruined the neatly piled tower that was held in its place by a heavy book, but it’s not like the owner could burst through the door an attack him for being on private property. As he pulled one snippet out of the pile, he had to realize, paper grew yellow over the ages, and as it slowly lost its flexibility it grew thin and brittle under his fingertips. He had to be careful.

            At first glance, all of them were articles, some bigger some smaller, but the name of Kyle Broflovski often appeared on them. He took out one unevenly cut article that had “July” written on its corner.

 

**A Lost Son, a Mother’s Search [July]**

            It’s been two month since the disappearance of Kyle Broflovski, 19, son of Sheila and Gerald Broflovski. The student was last seen on the 25th of May, leaving Photo-Dojo. The envelope filled with photos was found later at Stark’s Pond. This brings up further questions about the already questionable disappearance.

            In an interview with South Park Daily, Mr. Broflovski’s parents told our agency that their son was working on a project and they said he would never commit suicide.

 

 

**Frantic Search for Missing Boy [May]**

            On May 25, Kyle Broflovski, 19, left Photo-Dojo around late noon but he never made it home and his current location is still unknown. Our quiet mountain town was thrown into turmoil as people formed groups and searched through town and the local forest in hope to find Mr. Broflovski.

“We don’t have any new information on him, unfortunately,” Harrison Yates, the police chief said on Tuesday, three days after the disappearance.

 

**Return of the Masked Vigilante! [June]**

            There are witnesses and evidences that the masked vigilante who saved our town several times in the past has returned. Eight years ago a local youth, probably inspired by the superhero craze of the time, took up the cape and decided to work on behalf of the local police force.

             But why did Mysterion chose to return now? We can only guess.

 

**Mysterion Sighted! [June]**

            The following picture was taken the night before, showing the masked vigilante who returned after his almost ten year long hiatus. Is he the same person who saved us all those years ago? There is a possibility and we can’t rule out the fact that he might be on the run from someone.

            Court documents made public this week shows that Kyle Broflovski, 19, was previously arrested for vigilantism and impersonating Mysterion, however it’s still unclear whether he acted as a decoy and took the fall for the real vigilante or he truly was our Mysterion all along.

 

            Kenny couldn’t help but snort at this. Why would Kyle Broflovski fake his own disappearance only to play superheroes in this ratty town? This made no sense at all and probably the journalists just wanted to take their bite out of the conspiracy, instead of actually helping the family. Since he dressed up as a superhero once, he would be among the first group of suspects and that would endanger his entire family if someone decided to take revenge on this so called Mysterion. Unless, he was rich and lonely without a family, like Tony Stark he probably wouldn’t be brave enough to announce his superhero persona to the world. Especially not by faking his own death.

            But despite the absolute impossibility, Kenny still gained some knowledge thanks to the private investigation of the owner of this room.

The boy, based on the pictures next to the articles, was indeed Kyle Broflovski. And if the pictures were to believe, he had some kind of friendship going on with his doppelgänger. It made sense. It made so much sense…

“Is he the same Kyle Broflovski? If he is, then no wonder I freaked him out...” he muttered under his breath. The realization made him feel some kind of unknown bitterness.

            A.W.E.S.O.M-O knew Kyle and hated him, but that also meant that he knew the truly knew “Kenny” on the picture and now the possibility of being mixed up with that stranger wounded his heart a little. He felt… out of place. There was a connection between everyone, something ethereal he couldn’t really understand, because he was missing so many pieces of the bigger picture. If only Kyle could finally let him explain the situation instead of dashing away like a frightened deer…

            If only Stuart was alive, he could tell Kenny more about his son and his friends. But if Stuart was alive, he would be still living at the edge of the town, not chasing a lost boy.

            His chest tightened at the thought, and suddenly it felt like he forgot how to breathe for a moment. Smearing away a lone teardrop from the corner of his eyes, he suddenly felt the need to sit down, stirring up clouds of dust as his body hit the bed. Surprisingly, despite the mess and the faint smell of decay the room still felt like home with its familiar atmosphere.

            He felt so tired. The past days were too eventful for his taste.

He hated losing people. He hated death.

            Most importantly, he hated being alone.

 

            However, he’d lost the previous aching pain, that bit into his hearts whenever he thought about this. Now Kenny’s tears just silently rolled down his face, hitting his jeans without making a sound. He pulled out the picture from his pocket, and tried to make out those happy faces in the darkness, secretly blaming all four of them for the situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> M-Merry Christmas...? 
> 
> Let me tell you, Kyle and Kenny are dangerously close to each other right now, they just don't know about it yet. Reunion will happen soon...!
> 
> Also Stan had several pictures too right next to the articles, but they were all stored on his computer/phone.

**Author's Note:**

> I'd say this is an AU based around the Silent Apocalypse presented in an obscure game called Fragile Dreams.


End file.
